Who would have thought this, huh? Check out this advertisement from Avengers #165 from 1977:
Yep, that's an ad for the "All-New" X-Men. "All-new" because in order to boost sales (yes, you read that right) in the mid-70s, writer Len Wein and artist Dave Cockrum revised the original line-up of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's merry mutants that launched in 1963. Included in that line-up was a dude named ... Wolverine. Heard of him? ;-)
But that's only part of the story. Check out what is circled in red from above:
Indeed -- X-Men magazine used to come out once every two months!! Looking back from today this is an astonishing bit of trivia. X-Men was actually almost canceled completely because of poor sales in the early 70s. The book was only comprised of reprints of earlier issues for most of that time period. Then, in 1975, Wein and Cockrum came out with Giant-Size X-Men #1 ...
... and about 20 years later the mutant characters were by far Marvel Comics' greatest creative asset. They pretty much remain so today, too. Wolverine may even be more popular than Marvel's "flagship" character of Spider-Man. There have been three "X-Men" movies, and Wolverine is getting his own solo movie due out sometime next year (starring Hugh Jackman who played the role in the "X-Men" flicks).
By the way, if you're looking for a nice copy of Giant-Size X-Men #1, good luck. That, and make sure your bank account is well padded.
Fiat comics?
Posted by: Joe R. at September 19, 2008 04:41 AMThere was some talk of double-sized issues every other month, although I don't know whose brain child it was. I think there were other titles that were going to get that sort of treatment as well.
Giant sized X-Men #2 got hacked up into two issues, thank god, but was originally written for that format as well, I believe.
Posted by: Aa... at December 7, 2008 01:43 AM